Katrina Courthouse Blog - News and Updates
Sep 13, 2005
Storm splinters legal system
Charles Sheehan
OrlandoSentinel.com
Hurricane Katrina uprooted half of all practicing attorneys in Louisiana and upended the state and federal legal system. The storm threatens to disrupt cases ranging from an assault charge against Michael Jackson to the hundreds of suits filed against Merck and Co. for its painkiller Vioxx.
New Orleans was home to the Louisiana Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, as well as the city's criminal courts building.
Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-canelegal1105sep11,0,4388640.story?coll=orl-business-headlines
Sep 12, 2005
KATRINA: THE AFTERMATH: Legal affairs put in limbo
Patti Bond
ajc.com
Officials fear some records didn't survive.
From banks to barbershops, Katrina shut down an untold number of businesses in her path. With them is the whiplashed legal community in New Orleans, now scattered like so many papers in the wind, leaving thousands of attorneys --- and their clients nationwide --- in the lurch...
Source: http://www.ajc.com/sunday/content/epaper/editions/sunday/business_34326b9271fa70cd007a.html